A key focus of this blog is the history of Jacksons in Ireland. I am specially curious about those who may be related to Sir Thomas Jackson (1841-1915). His life is key to understanding how a dozen or so young men, sons of Irish tenant farmers, shaped the future of international banking in the Far East in the late 1800s. I also use this blog as a place for playful posts: book and restaurant reviews, recipes, and events in my life. WARNING: Note the date of each post. Some may be outdated.

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Monday, July 7, 2014

Migration paths fascinate me -tracking when and where people took root.

When Oinri and his brother Breen asked me: Could their Jacksons from County Down be
related to the Jacksons of Lisnaboe, Co. Meath? I had my own reasons for
wanting to answer their question.If
there was a connection, then it might provide a clue to the pre-1700s ancestry
of Sir Thomas Jackson, the person who is the main focus of my research project.

I had already done a fair bit of work on the Jacksons who lived
at Lisnaboe, near Nobber in Co Meath in the mid-1700s. Some of them had then
moved to Ballybay, Co. Monaghan where they had been big frogs in a little pond.
They were successful linen and farming people. They lived large, carousing at
length, were active insurgents on the side of the United Irishmen, and even buried
their favourite old horse named Jane in a deep grave, standing up – an event
that was commemorated in verse.

Two groupings of Jacksons in Co. Down have long tweaked my
interest. One group is linked to Quakers, and another to the politically
active Presbyterians who had settled just south of Belfast in the mid-1600s. The
first line included Thomas Jonathon aka Stonewall Jackson (1824-1863), and the
second line included President Andrew Jackson. Oinri’s lineage was new to me,
so I was curious to know where or even if his people might fit in.

When it comes to the Quaker Jacksons of Co. Down, Lisburn is
as good a place to start as any, even though it is just over the border in
Antrim – at least according to today’s boundaries. Stick with me for a half a
dozen paragraphs, and my choice to start with this lot may make sense.

Jackson Lane is now called Railway Street. It runs roughly
north-south in the middle of this map.

Thanks to the Lisburn Historical Society, we know pretty
much where the Jackson's lived:

Jackson's
Lane began at Market Square and ended at Michael
Jackson's land on the Magheralave Road. It was the Magheralave Road from
there on-Jackson's lane was about the Friends' School playing-fields. Lisburn
Miscellany. Frank Kee. 1976

The Hearth Tax, which began in 1662 after the restoration of
the British monarchy, reveals that Lisburn was a prosperous town. Linen
towns such as Lisburn, Lurgen, and Coleraine had quickly drawn Quakers and
Presbyterians to settle there, along with Huguenots who had contributed a whole
new skill set to the linen trade. In 1669, when most households in Ireland
counted themselves lucky to have even one hearth, a Nicholas Jackson had 2 and a
Roger Jackson (1620-1694) had 8. Eight!!! This level of wealth makes me wonder:
Was this the same Rodger JACKSON who served
as an ensign in the 1649 Officers under Cromwell? Quite likely.

An indenture signed by a Mary Jackson on August
10, 1709 led me to discover that a Roger Jackson – probably the Roger of
the eight hearths - shared a grave marker with Michael Jackson (1696-1727), a
son of Michael & Mary Jackson, in the Christ Church Cathedral & Friends Burying
Grounds. Which of course leads me to another question: Was Roger Jacksona father of Michael
sr. or an uncle? I don’t know, but he was most
likely one or the other. A second question: Was Roger a Quaker? I don’t know that either.

In 1707, a fire leveled most of Lisburn, and burnt down the
Jackson’s home on Magheralave Road. Michael Jackson sr. died two years later. Shortly
after his death, his widow Mary Jackson (née Peers), with seven minor-aged
children, negotiated an indenture,
whereby 1st Lord Conway,
Francis Seymour Conway(1679-1732)gave her the right to rebuild, and in compassion to great loss sustained
therein …. is pleased to give a
sufficient quantity of timber for the Building the said Tenement and also for
the further Encouragement of the said Mary Jackson to rebuild the same in
manner herein after mentioned freely and without fine to renew a lease of the
premises.

Although
Michael Jackson sr., was a warden in the established church, it is worth noting that the
Quaker meeting place was just down the road on the street where they lived. As for their professions, Michael
sr.’s son Michael was an apothecary, and it seems that Michael sr. and son John
were both doctors. They were also prosperous enough that it suggests they had
more going for them on the financial front than simply the income from their medical
practice. A deed in 1734 describes the holdings transferred to William
WOGAN late of Lisburn but now of Dublin Gent:

… all that piece or parcel of ground on the North
side of the Marketplace of Lisburn joining east on Thomas WALSHE’s tenement and
West upon the tenement formerly George GROGSTON’s doctor containing in front
88’ and ranging down on the right hand of the gate as you go into the Barnfield
as also a parcel of land known as Jackson’s
Hill and also another little parcel of land called the Barn path or Meadow
all the said Tenements or lands were formerly
in the possession of Mary JACKSON widowof Michael JACKSON the elder containing by estimation 48 acres and
one rood good English Measure more or less which said premises were demised by
lease therein recited by Francis Lord Conway to the said Mary JACKSON for 41
years at the yearly rent of 15 pounds 16...

According to the 1862 Griffiths valuation, no Jacksons continued
to reside at the site of the previous 1600s Jackson home on the corner of
Railway and Magheralave Road. There was a John Jackson who leased buildings
from George Thompson on Antrim St. which were worth £3.5.0 and a Joseph Jackson
who leased buildings from Robert Lyness worth £2.5.0, both in the townland of
Lisnagarvey, both of them substantial buildings.

The Nicholas Jackson of 1669 Lisburn is even more of a
mystery. I have put together a 2nd
Quaker tree which includes a Nicholas JACKSON from Seawaite Lancashire, and
perhaps they are one and the same. Perhaps not. This 2nd Nicholas
had a son Thomas JACKSON. The birth of John, a son of Thomas, was recorded in
the Quaker Church records in Kings Co. in 1703. It is possible that this Nicholas,
a father of at least one Quaker, might have stayed a while in Lisburn. After
all, many Quakers temporarily resided either there, or in Coleraine, or Lurgen
before either joining or establishing settlements in the south.

John Jackson (1653-1715), a son of two devout Quakers ,Richard
Jackson (1626-1679) and Margaret Keete (d. 1705), and the first ancestors in my
1st
line of Quaker Jacksons, was one of those early Quakers who was born in Lisburn,
and it is possible that there was a familial connection between his family and
the families of Michael and Roger Jackson. After all, both families resided in
the same place at a time when the numbers of those in their financial class was
small. It is also worth noting that once you drop the far-fetched notion of Richard
Jackson’s (1626-1679) father being Sir Anthony Jackson, there is no known, credible
ancestor for him. I wrote about this issue on my blog in a piece: The
Dog That Didn’t Bark.

Richard’s son, John Jackson (1653-1715), was born at Lisburn
and died at Killinure, Parish of Saintfield, Co. Down. This parish was home to many
inter-related Presbyterians who were connected to the 1698 Uprising. John’s
brother, Thomas JACKSON (1656-1716), also lived there. This Thomas was born in
Clery, Co. Down, although I do not know where that is. Thomas’s wife Dorothy
MASON, daughter of John MASON, probably died at Killinure as well. They had lived
there long enough that their last four children were born there: Thomas, Dorothy, Sarah & Richard. Now,
it may be a fluke, but a John MASON, a man with the same name as Dorothy’s
father, was also present as a witness to the 1705
will of Samuel JACKSON of Dublin. Samuel was a member of a Jackson
family of Coleraine who put down roots during the mid-1600s settlement of Londonderry
and Coleraine. This Samuel also had a brother named Roger, but this Roger was
born about 15 years later than the one at Lisburn - who may have been a cousin.
Or not.

There was a 3rd line of Quaker-related Jacksons that
supposedly descended from Sir Anthony Jackson. It started with someone named
John in some versions or Robert in others. Supposedly, John/Robert was a Presbyterian,
not a Quaker, possibly because he married a Scotch-Irish woman. Again, I have detached
the start of his line from Sir Anthony. Not that I want to throw the baby out
with the bathwater. Both of the two Quakers who were supposedly brothers of Robert,
named one of their sons Robert. This
is a long way from any proof that the three men, Richard, Anthony & Robert - were brothers, even
though the possibility can still be entertained – as a long shot.

I have posted the Ireland-based part of the tree which
includes President Andrew Jackson at The
Jacksons of County Down, so I won’t bore you with all the details here,
except to note that probate
records from the 1800s indicate a continuity of residency of Jacksons in
the Parishes of Dundonald, Holywood, and thereabouts – places where these early
Jacksons first put down roots in the mid to late 1600s. A Samuel Jackson, who I
suspect also belonged to these Jacksons held a lease to Ballimescaw aka
Ballymiscaw in the early 1800s, a lease that had been in the Jackson family since at least the
late 1600s. It is now the townland where Stormount, the house of the Northern
Irish Assembly, sits.

James Jackson (1648-1711), one of the men in this line and a
son of the first Robert, was a provost – a government post that also
contributed coin to the family enterprises. His will of
1711 shows that he owned a tanyard and house in Newtownards, as well as lands
at Ballymascaw, and a ship named the William
and John. By all appearances, he was in the export business. Probably his
father, Robert (?-1679), had also been a person with considerable financial resources.

Where this Robert Jackson came from, I do not know. The box
tomb where his son James Jackson (1648-1711) was buried at Movilla included the
"arms": A chevron with three mullets and in the base a hand
holding a sword. So far, I cannot find any other JACKSON crest with three
stars [aka mullets] on it. The ones associated with Coleraine, Mayo, Armagh,
Ballybay, and Limerick all have three birds, not three stars. SEE: Jackson Family
Crests.

From here, I start grasping at even remoter straws and note
that the family members who resided at Lisburn in the early 1700s included men who were
physicians, as did some of the later Jacksons of Co. Down, and Ballybay aka
Lisnaboe (Hugh Jackson (1761-1780). This may be no more than sheer coincidence,
but I suppose a next step would be to look at where they might have received
their training and see if there are any clues there.

Looking through my remaining pile of possible clues, I note
that one of the frequently used forenames in the early Lisnaboe line was Henry and that a Henry Jackson held a lease for Ballymescaw aka Ballymiscaw in the
Parish of Dundonald in May 2, 1695 from James Ross. This was the same landlord
who held the lease for Robert (?-1679). Ballymescaw was occupied in the early
1700s by a Gilbert Jackson (bef 1717-1740) who had a brother who was also named
Henry. He would have been too young
to be the holder of a lease, but the lease-holding Henry may have been an uncle of the 2ndHenry, or some other relation. Another possibility is that the lease-holding Henry was the father
of the Lisbanoe Henry (who died sometime between 1778-1796). That Henry’s
father is at present unnamed.

It turns out that I am not the first to be scratching my
head over Henrys who are supposedly connected to this line, although this posting from 1891 is
one more Henry that I have no clue
about:

NOTES
& Queries 1891: Will any of your readers kindly oblige me with
information relative to the relationship which existed between the Rev. Henry
Jackson, who was Presbyterian minister at Banbridge, co. Down, Ireland, from
November, 1743, to February, 1795, in which year he died, and General Jackson,
President of the United States. General Jackson's father emigrated to the North
American colonies from Tubbermore, near Magherafelt, Ireland.

Again a fact that is suggestive when it comes to Ballybay-Co. Down family links, a Mr. Jackson of Ballybay was the
agent in 1836 for J. Ross in the Co. Down townland of Ballyregan, Parish of Dundonald. This was the same
townland which was occupied by John Jackson (1667-1725) and Katherine McKinney
(?-1727). AS I say, the link is merely suggestive. The information in a July 23, 1789 Marriage Settlement ROD: 408 477 27517
does however link the Jacksons of Ballyregan and one of the Jackson
families of Ballybay, albeit not the Ballybay-Lisnaboe line (or not in a way that I know
about):

Thanks to the stellar research of Joan Blackburn of New
Zealand, the people on this branch of the family tree are now included in my Jacksons of
Co. Down,. The Thomas JACKSON (1700-1779) of Ballyregan aka Ballyreagan, had a son Rev
James Jackson (abt 1720-1782), who while he was a minister in Ballybay, had a
son Thomas Jackson (1757) who married Isabel Thompson, and together they put down roots in
Ballybay. Ding!

So back to the initial question that got me started on all
this: Were the Jacksons from County Down,
related to the Jacksons of Lisnaboe, Co. Meath? The short answer is that I
don’t know. And what about the Jacksons
related to Breen and Oinri? I still don't know.

1836 Griffiths map of Parish of Breda including Newtownbreda.

What I do know is what I started with. Their line began with a Robert Jackson, a labourer, whose
son John Jackson, a joiner, was born about 1843 in Co. Down (don’t know where),
and married a Maria Little at Knockbreda on March 31, 1866. Given that they
likely married at her family church, he may or may not have come from there. The fact that he and Maria were living at
Knockbreda at the time of their marriage may indicate that he had a lease
there, but I could not find a memorial of it in the Deeds Registry. Sure, there
were plenty of Roberts and Johns in the Knockbreda Church of Ireland records,
but none that were a good enough fit. The Presbyterian records may have been more
appropriate place to find a link since John and Maria self-identified as Baptists in
the 1901 census, but unfortunately, those records don’t go back far enough. Unfortunately
as well, the names of John’s sons – Hugh and John - are common enough to not
give us much more to go on.

What else? I have
gone through the available
parish records of Knockbreda – at least the ones that I could decipher, and
have compiled records
of Jackson probates. I also trolled through Griffiths and the Freeholders
Records at PRONI, and compared maps from 1835, 1862 with contemporary maps. All
I have learned is what anyone living in Co. Down would know. That Newtownbreda in the parish of Knockbreda is now in South
Belfast. It is about 7 km south west of the late 1600s holdings of Jacksons connected
to Ballymescaw and about 5 ½ km north-west of Killinure. In short, these
Jacksons were about half way between the two places where there were already significant
convergences of Jacksons.

The boundaries of Belvoir Park are not much different to the 1836 boundaries.

The earliest record possibly connected to this family is an
Ellen Jackson, born at Newtownbreda in 1806, and daughter of a John Jackson. In
1862, Griffiths
Valuations of Knockbreda show a couple of Jackson men leasing or owning mostly houses, not
land – which would indicate that they were no longer rural. Also worth noting
is that the largest landowner and lessee was a John Jackson whose buildings in
the town of Knockbreda were valued at £8.0.0, which may not sound like much
except when you consider that modest cottages were often valued at somewhere
around £0.15.0 to £1.0.0.

One last kicker, is that we just got back some preliminary
DNA results that might have helped us in this quest, but the only DNA link of
any promise is to a Lawrence Clarke Jackson whose email no longer works.

Maybe it is time for a little black humor. Maybe our problem
is that we are seeking an extra terrestrial. ET – please call home. On
the other hand, maybe readers of this post will find what I have missed, and
set me straight. It’s my best hope.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Since Okanagan cherries are in season, it occurred to me
that duck legs, marinated in port, would go well with a sauce which included
fresh cherries, although I suspect that frozen cherries could also work quite well. One thing led to another. It also helps that we have this brilliant shop
in Lower Gibsons which sells stellar olive oils and balsamic vinegars: Sunshine Coast Olive Oils.

For ten guests, I prepared a couple of extra legs – in case
a couple of them wanted a 2nd piece. It happens.

Prep time – 3 hours
including marinating time.

Amount

Ingredients

12

Duck legs - lightly salted (guests can always add more salt to taste)

1 c

Port – I used Taylor Fladgate - Late bottled vintage. A
sauce such as this deserves a good port (in any storm).

Sugar – although I ended up adding a bit more to balance
the cherries and port.

1 lb

Pitted Cherries

NOTE

If you wanted a bit of heat - a few chili flakes would not be amiss. My husband is averse to heat, so I didn't go down that path.

Method

1.Marinate the duck legs for an hour or so in the fridge, in the port.

2.Then preheat the oven to 325 F. or 160 C. (or
300 F and 150 C. if using convection). The point is the slow cooking which releases
the duck fat.

3.Put the duck legs in a roasting pan with a bit
of water - enough so they don’t stick, but not so much that they swim. NOTE: The duck legs will need to roast
for a total of about 2 hours.

4.Add the balsamic vinegar and sugar to the port, boil it up, and then simmer until reduced and thickened.

5.After the duck legs have roasted for close to an hour,
pour off most of the fat, and lightly baste the meat with some of the fat.

6.After another half hour, baste with a bit of the
reduced marinade.

7.After the legs have roasted for a total of two
hours, remove them from the roasting pan, and arrange on a heat-proof platter. Pour
the fat and drippings into a fat separator, and add the non-fat juices to the
marinade. The fat can be saved for other cooking uses.

8.Set the duck legs aside in a warm oven as you
prepare the sauce.

9.Add the cherries to the reduced marinade, and cook
them until they are warmed through, but not so long that they get mushy.

10.Pour
cherry-marinade sauce over the duck legs, and serve.

As sides, we enjoyed a roasted pepper salad, grilled garlic scapes, and asparagus.

Laughter and food so so well together. No dinner is better than its company, and this was one of those evenings that was also full of great craic. One of the stories that stays with me from that night was the one that told of a Rastafarian version of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments - a version which involved the burning of a bush of ganja. Utterly believable.

About Me

Author And Researcher. I am currently writing a book on the life of Sir Thomas Jackson. He was the son of tenant farmers, born just before the Famine in South Armagh, who was knighted because he not only lead HSBC into the 20th Century, but was also responsible for assisting with the funding of much of the economic development in China & Japan in the late 1800s. My first published book was "Some Become Flowers: Living with Dying at Home".